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Creating and managing subitems

Overview

Subitems help you break down complex tasks into multiple small tasks and track them efficiently. Like an item on a board, subitems have assignees, states, start dates, and due dates. Breaking down items into subitems helps you estimate the scope and duration of a task. This can significantly improve the turnaround time of tasks and ensure smoother completion.

Creating a subitem

To create a subitem under an item, 

  1. Open the item from the board and click Subitems in the right navigation strip.
  2. Click + Add subitem.
  3. Specify a title for the subitem.

Alternatively, you can create subitems by pasting text inside an item. Copy text and click the Paste subitems button () inside the item to paste and create subitems. At a time, you can paste only up to 20 subitems at a time.

 

While creating a subitem, you can set its state, add an assignee, and set the start and due dates right from the item form. However, you can also configure this after you have created a subitem. Additionally, you can click the subitem to open the subitem form and add a description. Adding a description helps provide more context for other users.

 

Note:

You can add only up to 50 subitems inside an item.

To rename a subitem, hover over it and click the Edit title button (). Alternatively, you can click the subitem and rename it in the form.

Managing a subitem

To indicate the progress of a subitem, you can choose between the following states from the dropdown. By default, subitems will be in the Not started state.

  • Not started
  • In progress
  • On hold
  • Done

To set an assignee for the subitem, click the Set an assignee button () and choose a user from the dropdown. 

Note:

Restricted members can be added as an assignee for a subitem only if they’re the assignee of the item.

To set start and due dates for your subitem, click the Set start and due dates button () and select the dates.

To copy the URL to a subitem, click the More options button () > Copy URL. This can help you share or refer subitems to other users.

To delete a subitem, click the More options button () > Delete.

To clone a subitem, click the More options button () > Clone. The cloned subitem will inherit all the properties and information of the original subitem.

If there are multiple subitems inside an item, you can reorder them by dragging and dropping into the desired positions.

Accessing a subitem

You can access a subitem in the following ways.

  • Search - Enter the name of the subitem you want to access.
  • Expand/collapse subitems - This expands/collapses all the subitems in the board. Instead, if you want to access the subitems of a particular item, click the Expand button ().
  • Filter - Enable Apply filter to subitems. This shows all the subitems in the board. You can always apply more filters to access a specific subitem.

     

Converting and moving a subitem

There may be instances where a subitem needs to be worked on separately. In such cases, you can convert a subitem into an item. There may also be instances where scattered items can be brought under a common item. In these instances, you can convert items to subitems.

To convert a subitem to an item, click the More options button () > Convert to item. This will open up a small dialog box where you can map the title (mandatory) and description (optional) of the subitem to the respective fields in the board form. Once you have mapped the fields, click Continue.

 

 

To convert an item to a subitem, open the item, click the More options button () located on the top right corner of the form, and click Convert to subitem. This will open up a small dialog box where you can select the target item. After selecting the item, map the title and description fields and click Continue.

If you convert an item with subitems, both the item and its subitems become subitems of the selected item.

 

 

You can also move a subitem from one item to another. To do this, click the More options button () > Move to other item > select the target item.

 

Note:

If the assignee of an item is a restricted member, only items assigned to that restricted member will be listed when an admin or a member converts items to subitems, or moves subitems.